Category: TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-2020

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Harshwardhan Singh, a third year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

Social media helps us as a platform in establishing connections with family and friends but oversharing on this platform can come back to haunt you at times. It helps us in connecting with the world but if we are not judicious in what we are putting out online, it puts us at a risk. The acts of harm committed online are fairly common these days which can range from Harassment, and defamation to even fraud in some cases. This makes the issue and the topic for this blog post, ‘Identity theft’ fairly important to our understanding.

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Shrudula Murthy, a second year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

“My father goes to office and my mother cooks food for us”
“My sister is not allowed to play with my car, she is supposed to play with her barbie”

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by V. Shanthan Reddy, a second year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

Contrary to our understanding of social media as only a benison, the scandals that have come to light over the past one year have proved the fact that the opportunity cost of using social media is alarmingly high. The biggest scandal among these has been the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Cambridge Analytical ( CA ) a British Political consulting firm illegally used data from Facebook profiles to categorise people into certain character types and then directed tailor-made advertisements containing information about Donald Trump’s agenda. These advertisements were presented in a manner that was best suited for that person’s character type, thus making him/her more susceptible towards accepting it and thereby largely increasing the chances of that person voting for Trump in the American presidential election of 2016 . There are two major problems with this –

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Sanchit Khandelwal, a second year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

The last decade has been marked by the emergence of technology and innovation driven industries, mainly in the form of start-ups being turned into massive capital infused giant companies in no time because of the peculiar characteristics of this sector. This technology and innovation driven sector, also known as new economy sector needs to play the kind of role what the real estate sector played in first decade of the 21^st century, to create employment opportunities like what the real estate sector did when large chunk of population from diseased states abandoned farming and made their way to urban areas in search of work and earn livelihood but at present times when real estate sector has been under severe crisis for a long time, experts see these high technology companies as rescue to the present dismal employment scenario. Contrary to the common notion of technology being inversely proportionally to employment opportunities we now have before us several examples in form of Uber, Ola, Zomato, Paytm, Amazon, Flipkart, Jio, etc. that these tech companies if provided required capital and an environment to sustain and grow can provide good number of employment avenues to semi-skilled and highly skilled labour.

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Siddharth Kothari, a second year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

In an era of unprecedented technological advancements across different fields, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to quiver our lives. AI refers to “a class of computer programming designed to solve problems requiring inferential reasoning, decision-making based on incomplete or uncertain information, classification optimisation and perception.”[1] Initially imagined as a technology that could mimic human smartness, AI is set out to exceed far ahead of its original conception.

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Rhea Reddy, a third year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

Recently, Facebook announced its plans to develop a full-body virtual reality system.  The company aims to create life-like avatars of users to provide for a more immersive social media and gaming experience. These detailed avatars will be brought into VR simulations so that users can play sports or interact with each other in the (digital) flesh. The avatars are intended to be anatomically correct, down to the last detail of muscle and skin. They would further replicate the real-time movements of users, along with their clothing and facial expressions. Though this technology may be a long way from being implemented, it would be prudent to discuss its legal implications because of the threat it poses, particularly to democratic processes.

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Manasvin Andra, a third year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

Controlling the public’s access to the Internet has always been considered the tool of the demagogue. We take it as being par for the course when restrictions are imposed on users in countries such as China and Myanmar, but a ban imposed by Facebook even on members of the far-right sees intense debate erupt over the perceived violation of the recipient’s freedom of speech.

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Gitika Lahiri, a third year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

The present Data Protection Bill introduced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology aims to change the manner in which data is stored and processed in the India. In doing so, it regulates the personal data of data principals collected data fiduciaries and the government. The fiduciaries have a set of obligations that it must follow while processing data. These include the transparency and accountability measures under §31 state that data fiduciaries and processors must implement necessary safeguards including de-identification and encryption of data. However, the effectiveness of such a policy and its application in India is uncertain.

[Ed Note: The following post is part of the TLF Editorial Board Test 2019-20. It has been authored by Vedaarth Uberoi, a third year student of NALSAR University of Law.]

From Terminator to Robocop, Wall-E to HAL-9000, artificial intelligence and fully autonomous machines have been a part of popular culture and science fiction, and with recent technological advances, they are coming closer and closer to a thing of reality which raises a question of what would be the legal consequences of such a development. In practical terms, recent controversies of accidents involving autonomous cars are a useful avenue to explore such a legal conundrum which is sure to be more prevalent in the future.